Before the Beginning
by stonedangel
Summary: Lucy is jealous that her sister Mary had more preveliges because she's older, but as Mary gets into trouble with her boyfriend, will Lucy be able to save her? set a year before season 1.
1. Chapter 1

This story takes place a year before season one of 7th heaven. The family tree is as follows:

Eric and Annie:

Matt, 15 born 1979

Mary, 13 born 1981

Lucy, 11 born Nov. 1982

Simon, 9 born 1985

Ruthie, 4 born 1990

"Mom," Lucy called. "Mary won't let me use the phone and I have an important call to make." She lunged forward to grab the phone from her sister.

"It's not your phone," Mary cried. "I promised Max I'll call him tonight. Besides, a social life of an 11 year old isn't that important and can wait."

"Since when did you have a boyfriend? A guy had to be a jerk to go out with you, Mary Camden!" By this time, Lucy was pissed because she herself wanted to call a friend and a girl at that. She wasn't as interested in boys as Mary seemed to be and all that talk of boys from Mary lately drove her crazy. They were fighting more than they used to now that Mary's a teenager and Lucy was not quite twelve. Being in the same school together didn't help the situations either.

As soon as Annie arrived upstairs with a, "What's going on?" they both competed with each other to explain. "Lucy's getting on my nerves lately and I could never have any privacy around here. I put up with it all the time but this is where I draw the line. The least I could do is make a phone call undisturbed," said Mary.

"Lucy, let Mary use the phone and then it's your turn," Annie said.

"But she ties up the phone lines all night," Lucy whined. "And my call to Gina can't wait that long because she'll be on her date with John."

"Call her tomorrow then," said Annie dismissively.

"But-."

Mary wore that triumphant look on her face as she started dialing the number, which pissed Lucy up even more. It didn't seem fair that Mary had more previledge because she's older. Given the chance, she could be just as responsible as Mary. I mean, why was she able to go on her first date a few weeks ago while Lucy wasn't even allowed to see a guy without her parents around? While Mary chattered with her boyfriend, Lucy stormed out to the living room where she might have her own privacy. She'll probably stop being bitchy to everyone when they start treating her more like a grown-up. Meanwhile, she started to write in her journal.

"I can't stand sharing the house with everyone lately. I'm like stuck in the middle. Simon and Ruthie gets to be spoiled by everyone because they're young. Matt and Mary gets to have more previlege and all that. I got nothing! This really sucked because a guy at 6th period lunch seemed to be interested in me. He finally gotta ask me out one day and I said yes because I wanted to be like Mary, even though I wasn't particularly interested in guys yet. I also wasn't aware of my disinterest because I wanted that date so bad. I asked mom if I could go and she just adamently refused, even after I said it would only be at the promenade. It was humiliating to have to call him and say I couldn't make it. He turned down my invitation to hang around the house because he didn't want parents around. Go figure. If I could have half of what he has, I'd be satisfied, but apparently I might have to wait a few years and the waiting part sucks.

"What I want are real parents, not a preacher who thinks he had some god-given rights to ruin my life. I will go out with the next guy who asks me if I have to sneak out the window. I have my eyes on that Jimmy Moon and I might have to spend all year getting him to notice me. I would die if he don't. xoxoxoxo Jimmy xoxoxoxo

"Love Lucy"

Slamming her book shut, she went upstairs to check on Mary, who had hung up and not in the room_. That's weird,_ she thought. If she had gone out, Lucy was sure she would've noticed however intensely she was concentrating on the task at hand. Then she noticed the windows open and it was 8 pm at night, Mary's curfew (Matt's been bumped to 10 pm recently.) She climbed half way out hoping to find her, but there was no sign of her anywhere. A second later, Lucy spotted a note.

"Cover for me or you're dead.

"Mary"

As pissed as she was at her sister, there ain't no way in hell she'd let something happen to her. She debated between telling her parents and covering, like the note said. After some deliberation, she decided to cover. What's the worst thing that could happen anyhow? Mary's never drank or got high and she always got good grades. Plus she's on her school's basketball team. Maybe all she's doing is making out with Max at the back seat of his car. _Something I won't be able to do for a while,_ she thought jealously. Nevertheless, she went into the living room to watch some soap.


	2. Chapter 2

Later that night, as Annie called Mary to wash the dishes, Lucy volunteered instead. Suspicious, Annie asked why she's suddenly interested to do Mary's chores when she usually couldn't get along with her for a second. "I lost a bet with her whether a guy would go out with her or not, so I have to do her chores for the rest of the week," lied Lucy. "Besides, she might still be on the phone."

"This time of night?" asked Annie, raising her eyebrows.

Lucy, desperate to stall as long as possible, said, "Well, they spend a lot of time together. Their whole lives revolve around each other."

Annie, still suspicious, said, "all right. Tell her to get off the phone in 5 minutes. Your father has an important call to make to the church." She then went to the master bedroom to wait for Eric to come to bed.

Lucy proceeded to her chores, wondering when the hell Mary will be back so she could get the burden of covering off her back. She had done this for Mary lots of times before and she never got used to how exhausting it was, especially considering that Mary was a much better liar. I can also be very good and the story would change around if I had been in her place, but unfortunately, I don't make the story; I just tell it, and it's not very much in favor of Lucy in the later chapters.

Coming to bed, Annie asked Eric if he noticed something was going on with Mary. Lately, she had been out late at night alot and made lots of flimsy excuses for breaking curfew, such as, "I just lost track of time."

"Well, bring a watch next time!" Annie had yelled. Yet, nothing seemed to stop her from staying out and Eric didn't seem to notice, or pretended not to. Having grown up on restrictions, he felt the need to let his kids have the freedom he never had. Not making their own mistakes will not do them any good anyway. So as usual, his reply was, "Nope. Mary's Mary."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Annie, who had been raised by liberal parents who let her do almost whatever she wanted within minor limits and didn't want her kids to get into the trouble she been in.

"She's the kid she's always been and she proved that she could be trusted. We have to see how things turn out before we jump to conclusions. Good night." He turned off the lamp on his dresser next to his bed, but Annie turned it back on.

"Maybe _you_ have to see how things turn out. _You_ always have to overanalyze everything. I go with my instincts," said the annoyed Annie. "The last time you didn't suspect anything, Simon brought an alarm clock to school so that they could get out of the building when it rings!"

"You know what? Let's just sleep on it. I'm too tired to know who's right this time." He turned off the lamp again, but this time, Annie did not turn it back on. Still, she can't help thinkong how right _she_ is.

Climbing through her window late at night, Mary tried to sneak in carefully so she won't wake Lucy, who turned out to not have been asleep anyway. "Damn it, Lucy, what are you doing up?" she said with surprise and exasperation.

"What do you think I'm doing?" retorted Lucy. "I had lie and do all your chores just to cover for you while you're out there getting screwed!" Waving the note Mary left her in the air, she yelled, "If I get busted on your behalf, _You're_ dead!"

"I was not getting screwed. What I did is none of your business, so stop being a pain in the ass. I got enough of that from mom and dad."

Just then, a pack of Malbaro fell out of Mary's pocket. Shocked, Lucy cried, "What are you doing with these?!"

"I bought it on a dare to see if I could pass for 18. I don't even intend to smoke. God why do I have to answer to you? Just let me be."

"Your boyfriend dared you to do this? Stop seeing this son of a bitch." Lucy grabbed at the Malbaro, but Mary reached it first, yelling, "For your information, I was with my boyfriend and a coupla other guys and girls. Besides, who I hang out with is up to me. Don't you have your own life to tend to?"

"Yeah, and I don't spend it making an ass of myself!"

"Ok that's it. You're going down!" Mary lunged herself at Lucy who pushed her off and yelling that she (Lucy) could take her (Mary) down in two seconds flat if she wanted to. After two minutes of trying to prove thy can overpower each other, Mary told Lucy to not say anything to their parents.

"You can do whatever you want, Mary Camden!" shouted Lucy. "I wash my hands of you!" Both then collapsed on their bed to await the following morning.


End file.
